Crime in the city: That's the theme of a Thursday evening forum dubbed "One Springfield: Young People Stand Up!" The public session runs from 6-7:30 p.m. in the gymnasium of Chestnut Accelerated Middle School at 355 Plainfield St. in the Brightwood section of the North End. The forum is intended to get young people, some of whom end up becoming violent crime victims, to collaborate on ways to curb street violence in Springfield.
(Patrick Johnson / The Republican File)

SPRINGFIELD — Thursday evening's street violence forum at Chestnut Accelerated Middle School coincides with a spike in shootings, including two murders in a single day and multiple gunshot victims over the past several days.

The "One Springfield: Young People Stand Up!" forum, scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. in the gymnasium of the school at 355 Plainfield St., will feature input from local politicians and youth leaders about ways to curb the violence, including collaborative, community-based solutions.

The event was arranged to address "last week's spate of gun violence," according to organizers. But that was before this week's spate of gun violence, which so far has claimed two lives and injured at least two others. About the same number of people were shot last week, according to police, adding that most of the shootings were related to gang disputes over drug territory.

On Wednesday, two people were killed in separate shootings on Kensington Avenue in Forest Park and on Avon Place in Six Corners. Those killings followed last month's murder of 18-year-old Lenezzia Clarke on Union Street in Old Hill, the incident that appears to have spurred the sudden spike in street violence.

As a result, Springfield's homicide count has quickly risen to five victims, three of whom were shot dead in a span of 10 days. Prior to that, there were only two city murder victims, both of whom were killed in late March.

The gun reports continued on Wednesday afternoon, when a suspect's handgun was recovered outside a Meredith Street address following a police foot chase in the Forest Park neighborhood. Shortly after that incident, a 33-year-old man was shot dead on Avon Place, a dead-end street off Maple Street in the northwestern corner of the Six Corners neighborhood.

More violence was reported early Thursday morning, when officers responded to separate stabbing reports in Forest Park and Six Corners.

At about 12:21 a.m., a man showed up at 156 Kensington Ave. – the same address where 23-year-old Darrell Jenkins was killed in the street Wednesday – with a slash wound to his face. An ambulance was called to the scene.

About 1½ hours after that incident, police responded to a stabbing report on Hawthorne Street in Six Corners. A responding officer said the uncooperative victim claimed the assault "allegedly happened somewhere in Forest Park."

On Monday, a shootout between rival groups in separate cars caused one vehicle to crash and another to catch fire after it was struck by gunfire. The vehicle that crashed struck a tree at the northwestern corner of Calhoun Park, where children were playing at the time.

This evening's "One Springfield" forum was organized by 20-year-old Armando Olivares, a member of the Massachusetts Latino Chamber of Commerce who is active in number of community action organizations, including Project Coach, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and Ramon Baez Dance Company.

Olivares said he organized the event to encourage younger residents to work for peace on the streets. "Young people have to be at the center of the solution. We have to work together with community leaders to stop the violence and change our city. Otherwise, we're just victims," he said.